More double-digit rent hikes in New Brunswick renew calls for limits

Gail MacDonald is 66 but doesn't see retirement in her immediate future after the new owner of her Miramichi apartment building gave notice of a $200 rent increase. 

"I kind of thought this was going to be my place I would stay here until whenever and now that's all up in the air and I'm concerned about what's going to happen next," said MacDonald

The small apartment building she has lived in for the last six years sold in early December for $330,000, more than double its assessed value, and rent increase notices were delivered to tenants that week to take effect March 1.

MacDonald's current rent on her modest one bedroom is "super good" at just $450 per month, she acknowledges. But she says a sudden jump to $650, which is a 44 per cent increase at one time, is difficult to make room for in a limited budget on short notice.  

"I'm a poor working senior. I've got rheumatoid arthritis.  I'm not sure how long I'll be able to work so I'm concerned about where I'm going to land." she said.

It is the kind of increase forbidden in some provinces. 

Earlier this week Ontario announced rent increases for tenants will be limited to 1.2 per cent for 2022 after being frozen at zero per cent as a pandemic relief measure in 2021.   

Nova Scotia announced in October a two per cent rent increase limit for 2022, a measure new Progressive Conservative premier Tim Houston said he felt "obligated" to impose despite his own misgivings about rent control.

Like New Brunswick, Nova Scotia has experienced a recent surge in population, but housing availability has not kept pace according to Houston, who said rents would be controlled until the end of 2023 to allow new housing supply to be built.

"We know enough right now to take action and we're obligated as a government to do so," he said.

"Tenants need help and they need certainty." 

That's not the case in New Brunswick where the province has said rent control has the effect of restricting new housing development. So landlords face fewer restrictions on how high rents can be raised.

"Let's not put measures in place to put artificial controls on the free market, and let's let it grow," Premier Blaine Higgs told the legislature a year ago

In Miramichi, MacDonald's property manager did not immediately respond to a request for information about the rent increases at her building, but she's not the only New Brunswick tenant facing double digit increases in the new year.